1K MV wind power projects to complete by December: Ministry

New and Renewable Energy Ministry expects to complete the process for awarding 1,000 MW wind power projects worth around Rs 6,000 crore by December-end.

“The nodal agency Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) has already floated Request for Selection (RFS) document for selection of bidders under the scheme for awarding 1,000 MW of wind power projects,” a senior official said.

The official further said, “The entire process under international competitive bidding will be completed by the end of the this year. The last date for submission of financial bids is December 15, 2016 after which bids will be opened and evaluated.”

About the reserve price or per unit rate of energy to be supplied by these bidders, the official said, “The government has not kept any reserve price and left it to the market to decide the rate. At present, wind power price ranges between Rs 3.9 per unit (lowest in Tamil Nadu) and Rs 5.5 per unit in other states.”

The ministry has already issued guidelines for transparent bidding process for implementation of the scheme for setting up of 1,000 MW wind power project connected to inter-state transmission system (ISTS).

As per guidelines, the wind power projects will be selected through open and transparent competitive bidding followed by e-reverse auction and the capacity may go higher than 1,000 MW, if there is a demand from buying entities.

Discoms of non-windy state and UTs and also the bulk consumers of any state/UTs who intend to buy 10 MW or more can buy wind power under the scheme.

PTC India Ltd, trading company selected by SECI under the scheme, will sign Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with wind projects at bided tariff and back-to-back Power Sale Agreement (PSA) with buying entities at a pooled price of the total bids selected. The term of PPA and PSA will be 25 years.

Bidder can bid for a minimum capacity of 50 MW and maximum up to 250 MW. The selected bidder is required to injected wind power at ISTS interconnection point.

Bidder is allowed to install 5% of additional rated capacity that will compensate auxiliary consumption and system losses up to interconnection point.

Provision relating to pass through of GST impact, part commissioning, efficiency in generation, performance monitoring have also been stipulated in the guidelines.

The ministry had sanctioned a scheme on June 14, 2016, to encourage competitiveness through scaling up of project sizes and introduction of efficient and transparent e-bidding and e-auctioning processes.

It will also facilitate fulfilment of Non-Solar Renewable Purchase Obligation (RPO) requirement of non-windy states.

In order to facilitate transmission of wind power from these windy states to non-windy ones, provisions have been made in the tariff policy to waive the inter-state transmission charges and losses for wind power projects and the Ministry of Power has already issued order in this regard.